Sack's First Adventure

The Guild Hall

It had been a couple weeks since Sack had arrived within this mysterious world, and today was the day he had finally gathered the courage to sign up for the Delver's Guild. He stood before it, looking at the architecture that was so grandiose compared to what he was used to. It was built to have a presence within the community and to serve as a symbol for one of the most lucrative jobs there are, and it accomplished it's mission with gusto. So Sack entered, marveling at the various statues of the fully-evolved Pokemon that were revered as heroes as he floated along the hall. Behind the desk floated an Alakazam, wearing a robe with a name tag that identified her as Taylor.

"How interesting.... another human. I assume you are going to register with the Delver's Guild?"

Sack had gotten used to many things, like constantly spinning, having no limbs, and candy being incredibly healthy. The occasional intrusion into his internal monologue was not one of those things. Though how did she know he used to be human? He wasn't exactly hiding the fact, but the immediate callout was kinda creepy. Another psychic callout got him back to reality though.

"Are you here to register or not?"

"Oh sorry, yes I indeed am"

He then went through the somewhat lengthy process of signing, determining that he was mentally fit for the job, understood the dangers, what moves he knew, all that good stuff. Though considering he's been filing taxes for about 15 years he was more than acquainted with overly long legalese and thus the process was likely far easier and smoother than for other first-timers. Though the next part wasn't exactly something he came prepared for.

"Thank you Mr.Sack, now in order to complete your registration I will do a psychic scan of your memories. Any and all information obtained will be confidential unless you desire it not to be. I am under several psychic seals that prevent me from disclosing this information. Do you understand and wish to proceed?"

Sack hesitated for a moment, after all in his previous world your thoughts and experiences were yours and yours alone, one of the very few things any tyrant nor oligarchy could find out and trample over. This world however was not his world, and from what he could tell there was not malicious and corrupt governing body out of necessity, as an efficient and adaptable leading structure was needed to fight the horrors that he was signing up to combat right this very moment. Though as much as he would love to contemplate the irony of a medieval society populated by impulsive monsters with numerous physical and mental differences being practically a utopia compared to back home, he had a mental intrusion to consent to. And so he did.

"Mr.Sack, everything you have signed within these documents has been confirmed to be true. Due to your lack of combative experience you will be assigned to a team of 3 others with a moderate amount of it for your first job, which will be assigned by the Guildmaster themselves. Their office is down the hall to the left, and you'll know it when you see it. Anyways, congratulations, here is your Guild Badge "

So Sack went with his new spangled badge that somehow managed to fit on his unique body, and indeed the woman was right, for it was covered in a golden border with of spears and sheilds sticking out. Once he arrived at the door, a feminine yet imposing voice resounded through the door.

"You may enter."

He opened the door, to find a mass of shields and spears in the back. There was no desk in sight, as these mighty warriors did not need mere furtniture to demonstrate their power and superiority. Underneath one could catch a glimpse of the many pairs of eyes that lay within, all of them very different yet unified in their goal. The feminine voice from before continued speaking,

"Leontas, Luna, Duke, this is your new team member, Sack the Klink. He will be accompanying you for this mission and possibly for the foreseeable future if he does well."

There was no argument. The Guildmaster had made an order, and that was that. Sack then noticed the three other creatures in the room, who would be his new teammates. As much as Sack tried not to, he was showing his nerves through the sped up rotation of his gears. These would be his comrades, people that he would risk his life to fight alongside and protect.

The first looked like a brown furred lion cub that sported a small tuft of red-orange hair atop hiss head. The tuft emanated heat from it, and wisped around like fire from a lighter. The cub looked at the newcomer with a flare of competitiveness in his eyes, seemingly somewhat ecstatic to have a new rival to fight alongside and fight in general. He introduced himself as Leontas the Litleo.

The second was a small blue lizard with a large head sporting a yellow crest and a large curled tail. She seemed to be on the edge of bursting into tears, at the same time looking relatively neutral all the same. The lizard looked upon the newcomer with concern and worry, as she also did with her teammates. She introduced herself as Luna the Sobble.

The third was also a lizard with a bulbous head, but this one was the only bipedal one of the four. The top of his head was orang withe eyes that looked to the sides and a small red crest atop it. The rest of his body was quite pale, save for his red underbelly. His most definitive feature however was that the majority of his bottom half was covered in what appeared to be semi-molted skin, which formed both sagging pants and a tail. He looked upon the newcomer the most pragmatically of the three, trying to garner what his new comrade would be capable of in a fight. Sack found his gaze to be a bit unnerving and unnecessarily intimidating for his stature and size. He introduced himself as Duke the Scraggy, leader of their team.

Apparently it was common introduce yourself along with the name of your species if you were fellow Delvers. Who knew?

The Falinks spoke once more, but this time it was a much more gruff and masculine voice that resounded through the room. They then put a picture of what Sack found out was an Evee within a frame.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, here's your debrief: A couple days ago, a Delver reportedly discovered the location of a Rainy orb within the first Stratum and went to retrieve it. They have since not returned nor have their Guild Badge activated. Your mission is to rescue the Delver, or more realistically, confirm their death and if possible retrieve the aforementioned items. Report to Taylor to have the location of their Guild badge inscribed into your own and then report to Epsilon for transportation into the general area. Delvers, you are dismissed. Arceus bless you on your travels."

Thus, the newly made team of four went to Taylor, who described how the inscription would operate.

"Your Guild badges will light up whenever your are near their badge, and will glow brighter once you are closer to the badge. Once any of your badges touch theirs, the glow will be dismissed and you will again report to Epsilon to be transported back to the surface. Good luck Delvers, and Arceus bless you."

And thus they made their way to the steam-powered elevator, and it's designated Liftmon who wordlessly waved at them with a dopey grin across his face.

Sack took the time to thoroughly visually inspect the elevator while they were going down to pass the time, and was admittedly impressed. It was a simple system, one that used pressurized steam within a presumably magically reinforced metal tank in order to move some gears attached to a large reinforced pulley system. Sure, by his standards this was horrifically inefficient with several dozen errors that the could spot with a glance, but Sack figured that this world was several hundreds of years behind his own technologically, and thus he could appreciate what an achievement the device before him must have been. Also, while it wasn't exactly built for efficiency it was however visibly quite robust and pragmatic which was likely all a Delver would care about on their travels. His musing about his temporary container would come to an end however once arrived.

There was no door, so once the elevator stopped Leontas readied his body to jump into the fray immediately once he arrived. Only to fall flat on his face with Duke holding his tail. Sack looked towards Luna to gauge whether or not this seemingly almost suicidal behavior was common from the Litleo. The response was a deep sigh and a slight nod from the Sobble. No wonder she was so worried all the time.

Asides from what seemed to be the general antics of the team, Sack took his first look into the Abyss. He was very surprised by how beautiful it seemingly was, with a large waterfall which turned into a lake before them, surrounded by verdant trees covered with green life. It was unfortunate that he was on a mission, he would of loved to take the scenic route around this place.

Their Guild Badges were already glowing quite bright, so at least the mission would seemingly be over soon with little fanfare, Sack thought. It would seem that whoever governed Karma within this world was dead-set on proving that notion wrong however, as two feral Luvdisk came darting out of the water, attacking Duke and Sack.

The attack did little to either of them, with Duke protecting himself with his tough and flexible shed skin and Sack being quite sturdy in general, but it served as one hell of a warning to the entire team to get their shit together. Now, with both of the Luvdisks using a Tackle, the battle has officially begun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H54hI7BTooA

Leontas immediately let out a Noble Roar to reduce the attacker's overall power, which would help the team and allow him to be able to take some hits even when being vulnerable to their attacks. A roar that sounded like a fully grown lion's resounded throughout that part of the stratum, slightly startling the two Luvsdisks (and Sack, even if he didn't wanna admit it).

Luna after made a Tearful Look to further reduce the attacker's power, making sure that her teammates would be safe. It came into effect immediately, making the Luvsdisks feel both startled and bit sad at the same time, a confusing combination sure to lower their potential danger to the Delvers.

Duke was more than eager to give the Luvdisk nearest to him some Payback for attacking him and the newbie. He got surrounded by a film of Dark energy that guided and empowered his movements to give the ol' 1-2-headbutt combo to the poor fish in front of him, nearly killing it outright and certainly breaking a few bones, folding some parts to make it look more like an anatomical heart rather than a romanticized one. The devastating beat down combined with his Intimidating* gaze made it even de-powered even further.

The Luvdisk that attacked Sack however was much more far away due to deflecting off of his metal exterior, and thus he used Lock On to make sure that he could hit the comparatively very fast Pokemon, even if it went back into the water. Before his very eyes was a red screen with a reticle and crosshair, homing in on the Luvdisk who attacked him.

Now it was the Luvdisk's turn to fight back, the one who Duke nearly killed used Attract on him, though it wouldn't work out. That Luvdisk was a male.

"Ha! Sorry handsome, I don't swing that way! Though you're 'bouta found out more intimately about how I swing in a bit!"

The Luvdisk that Sack was locking onto launched a Water Gun at Leontas, at least hoping that they could score some damage on the member most obviously vulnerable to the attack. It landed, but due to the effects of both Noble Roar and Tearful Look all it did was cut his face up a little near his jaw, something that was gonna be more annoying later when he started bragging about the remaining scarring rather than damaging.

Leontas saw that the newbie was using Lock On, so decided to use Headbutt to make sure that whatever was about to go down was a sure-kill. So he leapt and gave the heart-shaped fish a crack on it's slim forehead, denting it in but not killing it.

"There ya go newbie, its on a silver platter now!"

Luna wanted to make sure that whatever the newbie was gonna do was gonna go smoothly as well, and thus shot a Water Gun at the Luvdisk's fin, putting a hole through it and making sure that it couldn't escape.

"I guess it's on a gold platter now."

Now it was Duke's turn to finish off the poor fish in front of him.

"Actually, if your insisting, how about I give you some head!"

Duke was a Scraggy, known for their tough and sturdy skulls, so this Headbutt was gonna be the last thing that Luvdisk ever saw.

"Ah the simple things in life, the sunset, a nice homecooked meal, and turnin' feral Pokemon into mulch with ya' skull."

Sack thought something was quite wrong with his team leader's attitude. He would later learn that Duke was actually quite level-headed compared to most Scraggy's.

Though the carnage just inflicted by the team leader would be nothing compared to what came next. Sack summoned two gears from the energy reserves within him and performed a Gear Grind which would fit the "turning feral Pokemon into mulch" description much better than his team leader's feat. Every member of the team winced as the other Luvdisk was put into what was essentially the Pokemon equivalent of a woodchipper.

Now, the battle was over(you can stop the music) and the team could continue their mission. Their Guild Badges led them to the waterfall, and indeed they found their prizes underneath within a large nest, placed against eachother like eggs. They assumed that the nest was meant to be a makeshift camp for the night. Within the nest they found three things.

They found a Rainy Orb, shiny and blue, with an aura of humidity around it that could explode into rainstorm with but a thought applied to it.

They found a Guild Badge, which was klinked against Duke's to stop the luminescent glow from hurting their eyes.

They found a bulbous skull with slots for round eyes and ears. The mission was complete. They all put their hands together (or in Sack's case just looked sombrely) and said a silent prayer for Arceus to give them a good afterlife.

After that solemn moment, the Delvers went through the waterfall once more, intent on returning back to the surface and claiming the reward for their quest. They had made it only a couple steps outside the fall when a terrifying sound resounded all throughout the part of the 1st Stratum they resided in.

SKREEEEEE

It would seem that the nest they stumbled upon wasn't an impromptu shelter, but rather the home of a now very angry feral bird Pokemon. One that could casually produce a sound far louder than Leontas's Noble Roar, and was likely several times more powerful than the entire party combined.
Duke summarized the resulting feeling best.

"LET'S GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!"

The entire Delver squad couldn't agree more, and proceeded to bolt towards Epsilon as fast as they possibly could. It would appear that whatever it was wouldn't let them go so easily, and was flying behind. It was making a loud rumbling sound, that sounded somewhat like a wild boar. Sack only knew one animal, one horrific creature of gluttony that could do both of those things. Lo and behold when he turned around he saw it.

An oversized Pelican looking to devour all of them in one fell swoop. It had not the long neck of a pelican, just the throat pouch that currently contained 3 squirming Luvdisks, and the Delver's squad if they didn't follow Duke's advice. They ran/floated as fast as they possibly could, with Sack even using a Shift Gear to keep up with his much faster comrades. Though Duke had no such ability, and was caught via a bite from the Pelipper's mighty beak.
Leontas and Luna shouted their team leader's name, though they couldn't afford to look back for much longer than the instant he was bit.

Luna shed a predictably large amount of tears, and Leontas tried to look as tough as possible. Sack didn't really have the pleasure of knowing the Scraggy fully, but still was somber all the same at the loss of what he considered to be a great leader during his short run.
Eventually they arrived at Epsilon's Elevator, in which the....slow....Liftmon was petrified as a giant bird tried to eat the people he was supposed to be waiting for.

The squad made it inside the elevator, desperately panting for a short bit of reprieve. Luna and Leontas were also ecstatic to see a very disgruntled and somewhat embarassed, but still very much alive Duke without his usual coat of shed skin covering his bottom half. He got a very enthusiastic hug from his two long-time team members, but Duke noticed that the newbie wasn't looking as happy as they were. Sack was pensive instead. Duke wished to assure his worries.

"Cmon man, we're alive and making it home! I know that the first Delve can be a lot, especially when you run into a body or somethin' big an' scary but at least we're alive."

Sack responded cryptically to the Scraggy.

"Not if we don't do anything we're not."

"Whadya mean?"

"It's gaining on us."

"Oh shit."

The Pelliper was still on their trail, and was indeed gaining on them. The elevator wasn't going up the pulley fast enough to avoid the hungry Pelliper with the usual amount of pressure the Magmar was putting within the machine. And thus, Sack formulated a scatter-brained two-step plan based on what he knew about the elevator's mechanics in order to get them to go faster and away from the Pelliper's maw.

Although there certainly was the possibility that Epsilon wouldn't understand, For the 1st step of the plan, Sack had to get a frantic message across that Epsilon had to increase the pressure within the elevator in order to increase the speed of the pulley.

"Epsilon, put as as much steam as you can into the tank!"

Luckily Epsilon got the message, and used a Steam Eruption into the tank, rapidly increasing the speed of their ascent. Now came the part that would really suck. The machine was robust, but the non-enhanced gears wouldn't be able to handle the additional stress put upon it via the vast quantities of steam. If the machine broke,whatever acceleration gained would be instantly lost. Luckily Sack had a replacement set of gears that were much stronger. Unluckily, that set just so happened to be his body.

"The machine isn't gonna handle all this extra power. Duke, Luna, Leo, I need you to get rid of those gears!"

Luna was arguably the smartest of the group before Sack showed up, and certainly the one most concerned for their wellbeing. She managed to put two-and-two together, and responded accordingly while crying.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU'LL DIE BEFORE WE MAKE IT TO THE TOP! YOU'LL CRACK AND MELT!"

"It's either I do that, or we all become birdshit."

Asides from Epsilon who was keeping up the steam, all the Pokemon in the elevator gave each other a somber look. It was either Sack put himself on the chopping block, or they all end up like the Evee they found earlier. Duke gave the order.

"Alright gang, lets do this thing."

Firstly, Sack prepared his body with an Iron Defense, which would hopefully mitigate some of the damage. IF gave him an appearance of the most shiny chrome he had ever seen, though he didn't have the time to admire it.

Simultaneously, Duke hit the gears with a Beat Up , Leontas hit them with a Fire Fang, and Luna reluctantly hit the gears with a Water Pulse. It knocked the gears out of the system, which for an instant halted the elevator and slammed every Pokemon within it to the ceiling. Then it started running again. Tn fact it was running even faster than before with a certain suicidal Klink being connected to the pulley system.

As for said suicidal Klink, while he certainly wasn't regretting this decision he was certainly feeling the effects of it. He was spinning insanely fast, to the point where even he felt dizzy, if he had to say it would be about 900 RPM and accelerating. He also was immensely sore all over, like he had simultaneously done a triathlon and competed in the World's Strongest Man. The steam was also scalding him, which along with the soreness also made it feel like he was putting his entire body into an oven. It was by far and away the worst pain he had ever felt in his life, yet Sack persevered.

Though a combination of an insane amount of the Pokemon equivalent to adrenaline, the determination to save his new comrades, and by the grace of Arceus, the elevator managed to make it to the surface and get away from the Pelipper, crashing up through the structure that formerly held it and smashing into the streets of the Town.

Out came four Pokemon from the former elevator. A very disoriented Magmar, A solemn Litleo, A Scraggy who was angry at himself, and a weeping Sobble. Though if one stood close to the elevator, they could hear the occasional klink sound coming from the destroyed mechanisms. Eventually a staff of Blisseys, Chanseys, and Audinos were present as on-scene paramedics, checking up on the status of all of the Pokemon that were inside the wreck.
After that, a Conceldurr and a staff of Gurdurr were called to clean the wreckage, and within it they found a critically injured Klink, whom they rushed to the nearest Hospital.

The Hospital

Sack woke up, still incredibly sore, but not a bad as when he was moving the elevator. Standing around him was a sobbing Luna, a very happy Leontas, and Duke with a grin, with pants made from shed skin again which were much smaller then when their mission started. Luna then started mock-pounding on the steel exterior of Sack while weeping, which felt excruciatingly painful due to how sore he was. Sack was far too tired to tell her to stop.

"Stupid stupid stupid boys! It's like your all trying to die whenever you can! Don't do something that stupid ever again!"

Sack had to admit, Luna's crying pouting face was indeed very convincing. Duke just chuckled and gave a grin so cheeky that Sack swore it should by physically impossible.

"What Luna meant to say is, welcome to the team."

Sack had a pained laughter while Leontas and Duke burst out laughing while Luna wa scrambling trying to shut them up.

And so, Sack had officially joined the Delver's Guild, Joined a Team, Went on one hell of an adventure, and made some friends.